Operation Christmas Child: Small Baldwin County church participates in big way

SUMMERDALE, Alabama --- Harvest Church is a small, neat, welcoming community facility located on Ala. 59 in Summerdale. For 14 years the church’s pastors, John and Bonnie Schell, and the small congregation have been an integral part of a heart-warming, worldwide project called "Operation Christmas Child."

Operation Christmas Child is a component of the outreach efforts of Samaritan’s Purse, an international, nondenominational Christian relief and evangelism organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to victims of war, poverty, natural disaster and disease. Since OCC started in 1993, 86 million gifts have been delivered to needy children worldwide.

Harvest Church, along with Southside Baptist Church in Bay Minette, serves as an Operation Christmas Child drop-off spot in Baldwin County. Individuals, families, churches, businesses and school groups fill empty shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, and hygiene products and deliver them to the drop-off sites to be delivered to needy children around the world.

"Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations through simple, gift-filled shoe boxes and evangelical materials that tell the good news of God’s love," Bonnie Schell said.

In 2010, Harvest Church collected 3,668 filled shoeboxes, an increase of 237 over the previous year. "People from the community and other churches prepare and pack the boxes and bring them to Harvest Church," said John Schell. "People we don’t even know come.

"The thing that really excites me is that we see people who come in and bring boxes and we know it’s a sacrifice for them, but they are very excited about it," he said. "One family did 90 boxes. We have people who come in and they really don’t have anything, but they fix up three or four boxes. Those are the folks who really excite me, that’s what keeps you going year after year."

Some of the boxes arrive festively wrapped and some don’t. Some of the gifts arrive in plastic boxes with lids, which is good because the boxes can be reused for storage by the child or family. If the boxes are wrapped, the lid must be wrapped separately so boxes can be inspected and Christian literature added prior to shipping, and box lids must be secured to the boxes with sturdy rubber bands.

"We volunteered to be a drop-off spot because people were having to drive long distances to drop off boxes," John Schell said. "We really believe in the ministry and wanted to make it easier for people to be involved."

During the official Collection Week for OCC, Nov. 14-20, "individuals bring in filled boxes and we put them into a carton that holds 12-14 boxes," said Bonnie Schell. The cartons are loaded onto a large truck to be transported to their next destination — Charlotte, N.C., or Atlanta — where they go on an assembly line and anything that might be objectionable, like liquids, perishables or unsuitable items, is removed and Christian materials are added to each box.

During the collection week, volunteers help with accepting and recording boxes, filling cartons and transferring them to the truck. Volunteers will be needed at Harvest Church from 1 to 5 p.m. Nov. 14-20.

Some churches fill hundreds of boxes, while individuals donate what they can, and families involve their children in the effort. John Schell said that involving children in OCC "teaches them to give. It connects them to people in different parts of the world."

Bonnie Schell said the project teaches young givers "to think of someone other than themselves and to realize that there are children who don’t have what they have." She said that the children who receive the boxes learn that "people are concerned about them and love them, and that God loves them."

Harvest Church collected 3,668 boxes for Operation Christmas Child in 2010. Receiving and packing the boxes last year are from left Virginia Drinkard, Brenda White, Lynda Rickles and Bonnie Schell. (Photo courtesy Harvest Church)

For Virginia Drinkard from Foley, Operation Christmas Child is a year-round effort. She has a room in her home dedicated to OCC. During the year she collects shoe boxes — she collected over 100 boxes this year — and once the boxes are filled and prepared for shipping, she’ll start collecting for next year.

"Closer to the collection time I buy some stuff for the boxes, but people from my church, Pleasant View Baptist south of Foley, bring me stuff, and we have a collection bin at church," Drinkard said. "When I pack a box, I always wonder what the child will think when he or she sees it."

A video showing children from various countries receiving OCC boxes reveals a sea of bright smiles, pure delight and wide-eyed joy. To view videos of the program or learn more about Operation Christmas Child, go to www.smaritanspurse.org/occ.

John Schell said the children who receive the boxes receive more than the gifts inside. "When the boxes are delivered, it’s a life-changing situation," he said. "A lot of people come to the Lord through this project. There are churches started. A lot of lives and a lot of families are changed. I enjoy doing things for people. I enjoy giving, and this is really an easy way to give."

Bonnie Schell said it’s a way to "support missions and missionaries. It’s a good ministry."

"It’s something everybody can take part in," Drinkard said. "You don’t have to go out and buy a lot all at once." She buys items during the year to add to boxes at collection time. "It can be small stuff," she says. "Anybody can do it."

"What may not seem like very much to us is very big to children," said John Schell, especially when those children are in desperate situations.

How to help

People who want to get involved with Operation Christmas Child can "pack boxes as individuals or organize a group to pack boxes. Some people have packing parties," Bonnie Schell said. Volunteers are also needed during Collection Week. Harvest Church is at 804 Ala. 59 in the flea market in Summerdale. The phone number is 251-989-2228.

At Southside Baptist Church in Bay Minette, the Collection Week will be held noon to p.m. Nov. 14-20. For more information on the Southside Baptist OCC project, call 251-937-7925. Last year Southside Baptist collected 1,441 boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

For information on what to pack in the shoe boxes, how to label them, either for a boy or girl and according to age category (2-4, 5-9, or 10-14), call 1-800-353-5249 or visit the organization’s website, www.samaritanspurse.org/occ. Labels to be attached to the boxes can be printed from the website.

Monetary donations can also be made online, or checks made out to Samaritan’s Purse with Operation Christmas Child on the memo line can be included with packed boxes. The cost of shipping each shoebox is $7 or more.